In recent years, new generation information technologies represented by artificial intelligence and big data have developed rapidly. Particularly, the development of generative artificial intelligence (AIGC) technology, marking the transition from AI 1.0 to 2.0, has brought forth various artistic creation software such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, OpenAI DALL·E, and Baidu Wenxin Yige, providing new opportunities for the transformation of art education.
Art activities hold significant importance in kindergarten education, aiming to cultivate children’s aesthetic abilities, creativity, emotional expression, and comprehensive thinking. The “Guidelines for Learning and Development of Children Aged 3-6” point out that every child has a seed of beauty in their heart, and conditions should be created for children to encounter various forms of artistic works. Therefore, kindergartens are deeply exploring the use of generative artificial intelligence to assist classroom teaching, stimulating children’s love for art.
Empowering Teaching Resource Preparation
Generative artificial intelligence can assist teachers in generating materials related to art education based on teaching goals and themes, using prompts such as subject, scene, style, and image quality. This broadens the channels for teachers to acquire resources and meets the personalized needs of the curriculum.
In the art activity “All Kinds of Chairs”, teachers can pose prompt questions on generative AI websites like Wenxin Yige or WHEE (or use ChatGPT, WHEE, etc. to generate prompts). The AI generates chairs in the shape of unique and creatively fused animals, hamburgers, fries, ice cream, etc., making it fun, and the generated materials can be used for teaching design and demonstration, allowing children to understand and feel the interesting and varied nature of art more intuitively, optimizing teaching effectiveness.
Empowering Creative Inspiration
Generative artificial intelligence can analyze a large number of art works and styles, recognizing their techniques and color applications, achieving a fusion of multiple styles. In the art activities tracking the footsteps of masters like “Kandinsky – Composition No. 8” and “Creative Grid Painting”, relying on the symbols and line styles of Kandinsky and Mondrian, style-fused abstract animal images can be generated through the WHEE website, reconstructing lines and color blocks, allowing originally abstract elements to combine into interesting animals. This collision of inspiration further stimulates children’s interest in activities and ignites their imagination.
Empowering Teacher-Child Interactive Gaming
Generative artificial intelligence can effectively become a catalyst for interaction between teachers and children. In the activity “Draw My Good Teacher”, teachers play a game with children called “Guess the Teacher”. Based on the characteristics of a teacher described by a child, the appearance features are generated into prompt instructions, and a portrait is created using AIGC, which is then displayed to other children. They guess which teacher’s portrait has been generated based on the features. This interactive gaming approach creates a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere, allowing children to learn and observe while playing, and helps them understand that drawing requires imagination, multi-angle thinking, and expression.
Empowering Diverse Individual Displays
AIGC can give children’s imaginative ideas the “wings” of artificial intelligence, vividly conveying the whimsical thoughts within children’s hearts. In the “Super Future City” art activity, children paint their envisioned image of a “future city” and then use AIGC to generate their own AI digital paintings from their drawings. This sense of accomplishment in creation greatly enhances children’s intrinsic motivation and ignites their interests.
Empowering Dynamic Interactive Learning by Doing
Human-computer interaction shapes a dynamic aesthetic education scene of “learning by doing”, where the creative process itself is a process of aesthetic formation. For young children who find it difficult to understand “blue and white porcelain”, they can first add prompts based on the AIGC prompts set by the teacher, generating unique patterns that meet their interests. Based on these patterns, they can create blue and white porcelain, which lowers the learning difficulty while achieving dual interaction of appreciation and brainstorming, effectively enhancing children’s aesthetic and creative abilities.
Generative artificial intelligence provides strong technical support for teachers’ art education and children’s artistic creation. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, new ideas and technologies will continue to emerge, and this virtuous cycle helps to broaden the boundaries of art. Artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly changing the world, and some of its impacts are undoubtedly beneficial. However, the complex ethical issues arising from this technology remind teachers to recognize it correctly. Especially, it is necessary to strengthen the guidance and management of AI prompts to ensure that the output results align with our core socialist values. In the future, kindergartens will continue to explore how to utilize artificial intelligence in classrooms to enhance teaching quality.
Submitted by: Chengwu Road Kindergarten, Shinan District
Editor: Xu Shanjie